


Just A Name

by codenametargeter



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 06:18:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3109214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codenametargeter/pseuds/codenametargeter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's never told her his name before.  Or at least not the one he was born with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just A Name

“My name was Caleb Dume.”

“Hmm?” The words only half caught her attention as she was completely focused on the hyperspace charts before her.

“My name was Caleb Dume” Kanan repeated, locking gazes with her once she looked up from her work. “Or at least that’s what they told me at the Jedi Temple. I changed it after… after the clones turned on us. Changed it a few times actually until I settled on Kanan.” Hera’s expression never changed from its usual calm. He narrowed his blue eyes. “You don’t seem very surprised by any of this.” 

She sighed, setting the datapad aside. “How long have we flown together?”

“Flown together or sle—”

“Flown together,” she clarified, biting back an almost amused smile.

He shrugged. “Two now? Almost two and a half. Why?”

“You really think it didn’t occur to me in two and a half years that my Force sensitive partner changed his name after the Jedi Purges?”

The embarrassed flush wasn’t hard to detect even against his brown skin and it was endearing enough to make her bite back a smile. “Okay, so maybe that’s something I thought of and then forgot.”

“I’m sorry,” Hera apologized, rising to her feet to come stand before him and caress his cheek with one hand. Unconsciously, his hands found their way to her hips. “I didn’t mean to poke fun, love. Telling me couldn’t have been easy. I know that.”

“No,” he agreed. “I’m still getting used to having someone know I was a Jedi. Am a Jedi.” There was silence for a moment. “I don’t think I’ve said that name out loud in over a decade.”

Leaning down, she gently kissed the top of his head. “Thank you for telling me. Thank you for trusting me.”

“How could I not?” he mumbled, hands gently pulling her down to sit on his lap. Usually, the two of them sitting like this involved a lot less clothing but in that moment, it was incredibly intimate in a way that both of them needed right now. “Trust you, I mean.”

“Trust is hard.”

“Not with you.”

They sat there in silence for a handful of long moments, Hera’s fingers weaving through his loose hair and Kanan’s hands holding tightly to her waist. She was the one to finally break the silence. “What was it like?”

He took a moment of contemplation before responding. “Quiet. Or at least it was until the war started. Quiet and disciplined.”

A small smile snuck onto her face. “And were you the perfectly behaved little Youngling?”

“Hardly,” he scoffed. “Master Billaba told me all the time that I asked too many questions. I thought she was going to send me to the Outer Rim the day I wouldn’t stop asking Master Windu why the Jedi were leading the army if we were supposed to be keepers of the peace.”

“So a trouble maker from the start then.”

“Depends on who you asked.”

There was silence again for another few moments before she asked, “Do you miss it?”

Kanan took a moment to think before shrugging. “Sometimes. It gets harder to remember what life was like every day. Mostly I just miss the freedom.” She raised a questioning eyebrow. “Not having to hide and look over my shoulder all the time,” he explained. 

“Hey, if they try and come for my partner, they’ll have to go through me and Chopper first.”

“And the Empire wouldn’t win that fight,” he said without a trace of sarcasm or irony. 

Comfortable silence fell between them again, their foreheads resting against each other. “Caleb Dume…” she said slowly, trying the name out for the first time. “It’s odd to think of you with that name.”

“I don’t. Caleb’s… Caleb’s gone. That’s not who I am anymore.” Kanan’s voice wavered for the briefest of seconds, almost cracking before steadying again. “Even if the Jedi Order came back, I don’t think I could ever go by that name again.”

Hera’s fingers ran through the strands of his hair again. “I’d love you no matter what name you use; Caleb or Kanan.”

“So you love me, huh?” he asked with a broad grin that bordered on a smirk.

She hit him lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

“Right.” He didn’t need much more encouragement to kiss her, relieved to have shared another small part of his repressed history with someone else and perhaps even more in love with her than he had been before.


End file.
